Hello and welcome to Not Another One, the podcast with me, Steve Richards, Miranda Green, Ian Martin and Tim Montgomery.

Thank you very much for tuning in wherever you are. And we've got a lot

to cram in. In fact, there's some breaking news on that front. We've got so much to cram in.

You're going to get a bonus podcast on Saturday because we're going to reflect mainly in this podcast

on the Labour Conference and what our conclusions are from that.

And then we will look ahead to the Tory Conference in a separate podcast because we get

emails saying, why did you stop? We wanted to hear so much more. So you are now, but in two

different podcasts. As with last week, it's Ian Miranda and I. We reflected on what the

context of the Labour Conference was in advance, so we're back again now. It's over to look at it. Tim

is still away. He'll be here for the Tory Conference podcast, and he will leave his reflections on labour. I can kind of sense what they

might be, but we'll hear them. But before that, Miranda and I, you were there. We were in Liverpool,

weren't we? We kept on bumping into each other, kind of looking miserable, part because of the

weather, actually. It rained continuously,

as others have said, didn't it? Yeah, it was very, very strange mood, strange weather, everybody

struggling through the deluge to discuss why it was such a sort of conference of the glums,

you know, it was more like a wake than a celebration in terms of the mood. And everybody had grievances against the leadership. I mean, they perked up by the end and the skies cleared in a sort of, you know, pathetic fallacy kind of way. But it was a very odd conference. It was an odd conference. I wouldn't compare it to a sort of funereal conference. I've been to quite a few of those.

The wakes can be great. Yeah. I mean, last week I mentioned that the nearest in its buildup it reminded me of was the Tory one in 92. You know, they had won a triumphant fourth election. Then Britain fell

out of the RM just before the conference. And that was extraordinary. There was not a hint

of celebration. Here you bumped into new MPs, still excited, now with doubts, of course,

but there was still some excitement around. But it was unquestionably subdued

and the mood was uncertain no doubt about that when it should have been celebratory and why well some

of it's obvious but we need to explore it Ian you weren't there were you no no deliberate I wasn't

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